We finally have something of a detailed evaluation, by a left-leaning think tank called the Urban Institute, of MoCo’s “Boost” Guaranteed Income Pilot program. Recall that MoCo’s “Boost” Guaranteed Income Pilot is a so-called “Universal Basic Income” (UBI) pilot program rushed into existence by the County Council back in 2021. The County was flush with federal government Covid recovery cash and wanted to try something that had already been attempted as public policy, reviewed, and evaluated by dozens of cities and towns across the globe. It is a supposed “public-private” partnership which mixes taxpayer funds (about $1.2 million was allocated initially) with matching private donation money.
The “Participant Outcomes at 18 Months” report by four researchers (see screen cap below) is now out and paints a startling picture of how unaffordable MoCo has become to lower-income families under one-party rule and despite millions in taxpayer funds spent annually by the Montgomery County government on social programs, non-profits, food programs, and affordable housing.
In our post back in July, 2024 about how this reporting had been delayed, we also noted that while the UBI program itself was being wound down, there was a real lack of enforced financial education for participants or reporting on how the money was being used:
“Even as a welfare / redistribution scheme, the pilot didn’t make a lot of sense. It would only help a few needy families for 24 months before this benefit was taken away — and it literally required no reporting on where or what the “free” cash was used for, no financial education classes – and no reporting on if participants were even in the country lawfully and with proper documentation.”
Now, at least, the tax-paying public has something. The full report is worth checking out but the most glaring thing was how respondents used the “free cash” towards children’s education / care and stable housing or a better home / apartment:
“Participant goals align well with spending patterns and outcomes. The three most common goals pursued were spending more time on children’s education and well-being (52.6 percent of participants took action to achieve this goal), improving mental health (46.8 percent), and finding stable housing or a better home (41.6 percent) (figure 2).”
And also how respondents noted the effect of MoCo “Boost” UBI on their employment situation:
“Participation in the MoCo BOOST pilot has not had a positive or a negative net effect on employment for program participants, but many participants reported shifting their employment status (figure 4). Of participants who reported employment status at enrollment and at 18 months, 51 percent reported no change in employment status. For those who reported a change, the nature of the change varied: 18.6 percent moved from unemployed to employed or from part-time employment to full-time employment; while 17 percent moved from employed to unemployed or from full-time employment to part-time employment.”
In sum, the program’s participants are telling researchers what is already well-known across Montgomery County and even by the County Council in Rockville – housing costs are high, affordable apartments are hard to find (which will be exacerbated by rent control policy and “green energy” retrofit mandates on landlords), and child care costs too much for lower-income people. Temporary UBI at least helped these (lucky) participants because the people closest to the problem in their community or household are (generally) going to be the best at fixing them, quickly. One alternative to UBI handouts could be to unleash real prosperity and to stop erecting complex barriers to people starting small businesses or non-profits in MoCo.
Many of the people on the County Council have been in public office for 8+ years and County Executive Marc Elrich has been in county politics for decades… all while these festering issues grow and the MoCo government’s spending has increased, in real terms. A “pilot” UBI program is a band-aid for these clear policy failures by the career politicians.
More to come.
